“Alas! must it ever be so? Do we stand in our own light, wherever we go, And fight our own shadows forever?” – Lord Lytton

Entries Tagged as 'Open Source'

The beauty of Prizm is that it’s basically something that a lot of applications have been doing but on a bigger scale.Prizm from Mozilla Labs, used to be called Webrunner, which basically was to take web based applications and make them desktop applications. This means that any sort of web application such as Google Gmail, or Mint, or anything else would basically be viewed as a desktop application without the web browser interface.
As the web and regular desktop applications start blurring the lines that separate them, we’ll start to see a lot more interactive desktop applications. Strangely enough, Microsoft might have been ahead of its time when it brought Active Desktop and merged it into their operating system. But regardless, what’s beautiful about Prizm is that it’s not proprietary and thus while similar to Adobe Air and Microsoft Silverlight, it’s open source.

Mapack for .NET is a great library for linear algebra computations.
It basically covers pretty much most of the linear algebra type functionality and gives you a library that you can plug and play if you happen to need those types of mathematics in your application. I can’t say that I’ve ever needed linear algebra in any of my applications, but then again, never needed to write engineering applications.

If you’re looking for a quick WYSIWYG editor for html, then Writer for .NET might be for you.
It your regular editor with your usual cut/copy/paste functionality but it can also manage formatting, hyperlinks, and text layout. Just think something like Word editor for HTML but with a smaller footprint, and you’d probably be pretty close to this. Nice thing is that the source code is open so you can basically edit it to your heart’s desire and make it better if you wish. Who said Windows doesn’t have open source?

When it comes to ease of upgrading, I have to say that Ubuntu takes the cake. For newbies and experienced users alike, this has got to be one of the most simple upgrade procedures ever.
Basically, it comes down to this. You launch Synaptic, and it detects that there’s a new version out there. You click on the button that says “Upgrade”.
After one or two clicks for OK on the install, it just goes off to the Internet to grab the correct packages and does the upgrade for you. You just leave it alone and the upgrade will just set up itself. Bottlenecked by your bandwidth and your processor speed when the packages are installed. Definitely gives meaning to one click upgrade.
So if you’re looking for a distribution that’s easy to use and you don’t know what you’re doing but don’t want to hassle with too many things since you’re trying out Linux for the first time, then give Ubuntu a go.\Photo Credit: (Dhjiz)

Yeah, I know. In all technicality, it’s more like all GSM phones and networks that I’d stay away from. But seeing how much I want an iPhone but I’ve been waiting… and waiting… for a CDMA version? Eh. This just nails the coffin shut.
Why? With a $700 open source device called a Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP), and a rainbow table that would basically take somewhere around 2.2TBs of space, the GSM frames can be decrypted. Yes, this means that calls will essentially be non-private.
Tapped.
Oh yeah. No more talking about those dirty little secrets over that iPhone of yours. What’s more interesting is that if a web service does evolve from the research presented at this year’s Blackhat DC? You won’t even need the two+ terabytes of space to build your fun GSM scanner.
You have to believe that executives at AT&T and T-Mobile are tearing out their hair right now if they even pay one inkling of attention to what potential havoc this could cause on their networks. Insecure phone calls? Not exactly a consumer confidence builder if you ask me. The most amusing part of this, is… somewhere in the back of my head, a little voice is telling me that NSA has already been listening in on these for a while. They have the resources, and you bet they have the actual storage for rainbow tables to do the decryption.Photo Credit: (jasonEscapist)

Usually for Windows, I usually would use Putty. It seems that pretty much everyone else does too. But once upon a time, I did use Teraterm.
Well it seems that someone actually went and added ssh functionality to it and cleaned it up a little bit. And that’s pretty dang cool. TTSSH2 is the ssh part of TeraTerm Pro and is open sourced. Gotta love new things to look at. So if you’re not fond of Putty for whatever reason, or you just have some nostalgic tie to TeraTerm Pro, you might want to try this out.

For those of you that have gawked at the fact that there are devices out there … yes, bluetooth devices, that allow you to step away from your computer and have it lock up but only for Windows? Look no further, BlueProximity brings that functionality to linux.
Usually set to a device such as your mobile phone, when your mobile phone leaves the vicinity, the computer will automatically lock itself. When the phone comes back? Bam! Computer is back in action. Amazing eh? It’s got to be one of the most interesting ways of locking a device and now it’s for linux and open source. Totally neato skippy.

wTail basically does what tail does in a Unix or linux environment. It allows you to track the changes in a file as it happens… or actually just output that file like text view.
It requires .NET framework and is open source for Windows.

Most people with Windows usually default to the Adobe PDF reader when needing it. I mean, it is the “original” reader.
But if you need a pdf viewer that is lightning quick and a small footprint, then Sumatra PDF fits the bill. In fact, it’s so small that you can install and use it from a USB drive.
That’s right. There is something as simplistic as just reading a pdf without all that other junk and what not. I know they’re called “features” but I really just don’t have a need for it. Do you? So in the case you want something free, for Windows and happens to be open source to boot… take a looksie. You might not be disappointed.

Want to collaborate on a document? Google Docs just not doing it for you? Wish it was pretty much real-time?
Gobby, baby. Gobby. That’s totally what you’re looking for.
If you take a look at what it does, it’s actually very useful for a revision control system except without revisions since the merging is pretty much right away. I’d be curious as to how it takes into account if two people edit the same thing. But regardless, this is super useful for people that are far away, but need to collaborate on a documentation. Real-time fun… or annoyance. However you see collaboration editors.
For linux, and open source.